What caused Cold War is still a big question to many historians. This dilemma can be understood from the background and nature of Cold war. Blood shed and war time destruction during the Cold War were less harmful when compared with either of the world wars. But mutually assured destruction was present through out the Cold war period.
Mutual suspicions, aggressive steps by both sides in the name of self defense were responsible for Cold war. It is visible in every international affair. Every international issue or conflict was interpreted by each bloc in their own light. Cooperation between both the U.S and Russia during Second World War was a matter of necessity for self preservation against Nazi Germany. Once victory in the war was assured, differences started emerging amongst would be war victors.
Russia, under Stalin leadership decided to gain as much as influence as possible in Europe. His claim was that friendly neighbors and buffer zones against the Western Capitalist States were necessary for the very survival of communist states in Eastern Europe. For him, being communist state was not sufficient it must be Russian style communism. This attitude of Russia was interpreted by West as expansionist tendencies of Tsar Regime in modern Russia.
Mutual cooperation after the Second World War helped to create international organizations like U.N, but this did not settle the scores on the war result. Germany and Austria were divided into 4 regions each, each region under the influence of U.S.S.R, U.S.A, England and France. Instead of settling the war disputes, this division became a fighting ground between Western Bloc led by U.S and U.S.S.R Bloc led by Russia.
Regions under Western Bloc were able to improve their economic conditions by undergoing rapid industrialization with the help of Marshall aid plan from US government where as region under U.S.S.R lagged behind in every aspect of industrialization. This Marshall aid was interpreted by Russia as Dollar Imperialism of West. Though U.S.S.R had its own aid program, popularly known as Molotov Plan, it was not as successful as Marshal Plan.
After the overthrow of elected government in Czechslovika, the iron curtain was complete in the view of Western Bloc. Both sides started building military alliances. NATO led by U.S.A, Warsaw pact led by Russia became the respective military alliances of both the Blocs.
There was a thaw in the cold war after the death of Stalin; Russian communist party leaders started propagating the idea of mutual coexistence. They admitted that they had only two choices either mutually destruction or peaceful coexistence. It does not mean U.S.S.R gave up its communist agenda. They wanted to win the war by proving the ideological superiority not by war.
It is to be noted that Cold War was not completely a war on ideologies, many a time both the blocs proved it. Many a time they acted against their own self proclaimed ideologies. After some distance (historically) from the Cold war we can understand that both blocs led by U.S and U.S.S.R had done so only in their self interest.
Let us consider the following examples.
1. U.S.A provided military aid to monarchist State Greece and Turkey not because both the nations were shining examples of democracy but because of their anti communist stand.
2. Refusal of Western bloc to recognize People’s Republic of China until the visit of Richard Nixon to mainland China in 1971.
3. Forcing Non-Aligned nations like India to side their point of view in international conflicts. Some times bargaining with food aid.
4. Ruthless murders of political opponents by U.S.S.R (Czechslovika and Poland are fine examples in this regard).
5. Both blocs showed no hesitation to surpass democratically elected governments and to support dictators if they found it was necessary to protect their self interests.
Neither U.S. nor U.S.S.R showed interest in the uplifting the undeveloped countries without any self interest.
Luckily both blocs showed maturity when it came to final stages of the conflict. At least in this respect both the blocs should be appreciated.
After the disintegration of U.S.S.R, the Cold war ended without any major ground conflicts, otherwise this Globe might have been a peaceful grave yard forever.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Holocaust
I would like to start this blog with one of the greatest human tragedy in the history of earth. Nearly six million people were murdered in the name of purification of Aryan race. The entire world was shocked to see the presence of Concentration camps in the very heart of Europe, the so called carriers of human civilization to the different parts of the world. Today when we look at Holocaust, we would wonder what drives man to kill another man so ruthlessly or the entire Holocaust was Hollywood myth for entertainment (there are people proposing this). Beyond doubt, with all the evidence available, we can say Holocaust is not a myth but a reality indeed a tragedy of human making.
Aryan superiority, though there exists no scientific evidence to prove it, was the driving force behind the prosecution of Jews during Nazi Germany. Nazi party came to the power by blaming everything on Jewish people for Germany` s economic backwardness. Over the night statics were drawn in favor of their argument, anti Jewish propaganda was on full swing after the Germany` s defeat in First World war. Unfortunately, Jews people were doing exceptionally well despite economic depression and other constraints of that time, but this had nothing to do with Jewishness of individuals. The average Jew was little better than an average Pole or German or any other national where ever Jews lived. Perhaps this was may be due to their ability to trade. Jewish people were doing well in aspect of economic activity and science much to the envy of other communities.
This was exploited by Nazi party, Jews were blamed for the defeat of Germany in First World war. Most of the time Nazi party members used exaggerated numbers of Jewish wealth to create fear in non Jewish people and proposed the concept of Aryan superiority theory.
Nazi Party came to power in 1933, Adolf Hitler became its chancellor. Nazi party started systematic elimination of Jews from civil life. Jewish business were forced to shut down, Jewish lecturers, professors, doctors and all other professionals were forced to resign from government service. Albert Einstein, who was given the man of the century by Time magazine in 2000, was one among the prominent Jews who fled Germany during this elimination of Jews from civilian life. In fact Nazi party could not accept the scientific knowledge of Einstein and asked many of its Noble prize winning scientists to refute Einstein theories. In schools and colleges his theories were not taught or taught with a different name.
After the beginning of second world war, Germany occupied Poland and some eastern parts of Russia. Nazi party started elimination of Jews in its occupied land, the list of Jews was prepared for separation, then they were given separate areas for living known as Ghettos. Conditions at these Ghettos was so terrible that many people die of unhygienic conditions. Jewish communities and their leaders were nominated to prepare the list of batches for concentration camps. Imagine the situation where its own community leader had to select his own people for killing. Many a time these leaders committed suicide. Though Jewish people offered some resistance, it was not even sufficient to save their own life.
We may assume that the people who did this horrible crimes were not educated well but the truth was that most of them got their PH.D s, many Noble laureates from Nazi Germany publicly ridiculed Albert Einstein and his theories.
The prosecution of Jews was unabated till the end of second world war. One by one concentration camps were liberated by Allied forces and found the horrible conditions of Holocaust victims, virtually every prisoner was a like a skinned skeleton with life.
The stories of Anne Frank (a little girl with dairy writing hobby penned her story of hiding, but later she was caught and sent to Concentration camp where she died) and Oskar Schindler ( a business man and Nazi Party member who saved 1100 Jews intentionally in the name of running a non productive factory and lost most of his wealth) were beautifully presented by Hollywood.
Later most of the Nazi Officials either caught and prosecuted for their crimes against humanity or committed suicide. But Jewish community lost all most all of its population in Poland and other parts of Europe.
Interestingly Jewish people bounced back and established their homeland as Israel by forcing native Arabs to flee from Middle East, now there has been a continuous fighting in the name of Jewish home land but with a difference. This time the helpless people belong to Arabs not Jewish people. It may sound paradoxically, earlier victims now become the designers of new massacares. We can`t blame entirely on Israel state for the ongoing conflict, but Jewish people determined not to leave their homeland. Nobody knows how this conflict will end, how many people need to lose their life again because of the violent methods adopted by both sides(human bombs by Arabs, Aerial Bombing by Israel).
Aryan superiority, though there exists no scientific evidence to prove it, was the driving force behind the prosecution of Jews during Nazi Germany. Nazi party came to the power by blaming everything on Jewish people for Germany` s economic backwardness. Over the night statics were drawn in favor of their argument, anti Jewish propaganda was on full swing after the Germany` s defeat in First World war. Unfortunately, Jews people were doing exceptionally well despite economic depression and other constraints of that time, but this had nothing to do with Jewishness of individuals. The average Jew was little better than an average Pole or German or any other national where ever Jews lived. Perhaps this was may be due to their ability to trade. Jewish people were doing well in aspect of economic activity and science much to the envy of other communities.
This was exploited by Nazi party, Jews were blamed for the defeat of Germany in First World war. Most of the time Nazi party members used exaggerated numbers of Jewish wealth to create fear in non Jewish people and proposed the concept of Aryan superiority theory.
Nazi Party came to power in 1933, Adolf Hitler became its chancellor. Nazi party started systematic elimination of Jews from civil life. Jewish business were forced to shut down, Jewish lecturers, professors, doctors and all other professionals were forced to resign from government service. Albert Einstein, who was given the man of the century by Time magazine in 2000, was one among the prominent Jews who fled Germany during this elimination of Jews from civilian life. In fact Nazi party could not accept the scientific knowledge of Einstein and asked many of its Noble prize winning scientists to refute Einstein theories. In schools and colleges his theories were not taught or taught with a different name.
After the beginning of second world war, Germany occupied Poland and some eastern parts of Russia. Nazi party started elimination of Jews in its occupied land, the list of Jews was prepared for separation, then they were given separate areas for living known as Ghettos. Conditions at these Ghettos was so terrible that many people die of unhygienic conditions. Jewish communities and their leaders were nominated to prepare the list of batches for concentration camps. Imagine the situation where its own community leader had to select his own people for killing. Many a time these leaders committed suicide. Though Jewish people offered some resistance, it was not even sufficient to save their own life.
We may assume that the people who did this horrible crimes were not educated well but the truth was that most of them got their PH.D s, many Noble laureates from Nazi Germany publicly ridiculed Albert Einstein and his theories.
The prosecution of Jews was unabated till the end of second world war. One by one concentration camps were liberated by Allied forces and found the horrible conditions of Holocaust victims, virtually every prisoner was a like a skinned skeleton with life.
The stories of Anne Frank (a little girl with dairy writing hobby penned her story of hiding, but later she was caught and sent to Concentration camp where she died) and Oskar Schindler ( a business man and Nazi Party member who saved 1100 Jews intentionally in the name of running a non productive factory and lost most of his wealth) were beautifully presented by Hollywood.
Later most of the Nazi Officials either caught and prosecuted for their crimes against humanity or committed suicide. But Jewish community lost all most all of its population in Poland and other parts of Europe.
Interestingly Jewish people bounced back and established their homeland as Israel by forcing native Arabs to flee from Middle East, now there has been a continuous fighting in the name of Jewish home land but with a difference. This time the helpless people belong to Arabs not Jewish people. It may sound paradoxically, earlier victims now become the designers of new massacares. We can`t blame entirely on Israel state for the ongoing conflict, but Jewish people determined not to leave their homeland. Nobody knows how this conflict will end, how many people need to lose their life again because of the violent methods adopted by both sides(human bombs by Arabs, Aerial Bombing by Israel).
Friday, August 17, 2007
The Beauty That Is History
This is blog is an attempt to discuss history with the spirit of learning and enquiry. With the help of my online friends and other online resources, I will present the subject as accurate as possible, there is no question of prejudice or love or hate for any sections of the society, at the same time there is no fear to present the truth.
Instead of reproducing available content elsewhere in the web, I would like to present the subject as creatively as possible with little drama.
Mail me at yourschoice1@gmail.com.
Instead of reproducing available content elsewhere in the web, I would like to present the subject as creatively as possible with little drama.
Mail me at yourschoice1@gmail.com.
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